In the last lesson we looked how being too nice to ourselves is connected to selfishness and vanity, which brings us to an important point: Being a nice-oholic doesn’t mean you’re a good person. It means you have an addiction that needs to be addressed. No matter what kind of nice-oholic you are, … [Read more...]
Nice-oholic Pt 13: Is God even Nice?
In the last lesson we considered how God isn’t a nice-oholic by looking at how He doesn’t answer all of our prayers because He’s not a cosmic Santa. Instead, He’s a loving parent who disciplines His children because He’s more worried about making us good people rather than making us spoiled. When … [Read more...]
Nice-oholic Pt 12: Is God a Nice-oholic?
Is God a nice-oholic? There’s an interesting question. I think everyone at some point has at least wanted God to be a nice-oholic: “God, I have this thing I really want… You’re going to give it to me right? You say You love me, so You have to… don’t You?” Unfortunately, it’s easy to forget that … [Read more...]
Nice-oholic Pt 11: Dealing with Shame
One of the greatest struggles for nice-oholics (and others) is dealing with shame. Like all of our emotions, shame is a gift from God (there’s a fun thought). In its proper form, shame is meant to be a threat of repercussion to keep us from doing really dumb things. It’s like the threat of being … [Read more...]
Nice-oholic Pt 10: Finding Healing through Understanding
I was recently listening to some early 2000s Alternative music (aka modern classical music) and Simple Plan’s “Perfect” came on, which is a song to a dad with the main lyrics being: “I’m sorry, I can’t be perfect.” I wonder how the band is now that they’re older and likely have kids of their own. … [Read more...]
Nice-oholic Pt 9: Weak Parents
In the last lesson I looked at how we need to be careful not to enable bad behavior. Some of the worst culprits of this are parents. To begin, I should make a distinction between enabling and spoiling. A friend of mine said that when she lived at home as an adult, her dad would make sure her car … [Read more...]
Nice-oholic Pt 8: Give Responsibility Where It’s Due
People who are overly nice can make me angry. I don’t mean the frustratingly nice ones who end up in situations like when two drivers are at an intersection and the one waves the other on, but then the other waves them on. This causes the original one to wave the other on again, but the other … [Read more...]
Nice-oholic Pt 7: Being Nicer to Yourself By…
What if the thing you hate the most about yourself is actually an important part of who you are? Okay, let’s back up a bit with another question: What are the three things that make you who you are? No, this isn’t some lame Christian thing: (dorky answer) “The Father, Son... and what’s the third … [Read more...]